Gillibrand challenger Mike Sapraicone's links to wrongful conviction cases may become campaign issue

Mike Sapraicone’s supporters tout his 20-year career as a New York City police officer as a reason to elect the Republican to the U.S. Senate, but his ties to two wrongful conviction cases could become campaign fodder for his opponents.

Sapraicone, a former NYPD homicide detective who is challenging Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, for her seat in Congress, helped investigate two cases in the mid-1990s that kept four men wrongly behind bars for more than 20 years and to date has cost the state and city more than $25 million combined in settlements.

The cases involve the 1996 attempted armed robbery of a check-cashing business in East Elmhurst, which resulted in the death of the business owner and an off-duty police officer, as well as the 1997 armed robbery of a payroll truck in Flushing in which an off-duty police detective and retired NYPD officer were shot and critically wounded.

Sapraicone, a Queens homicide detective at the time, was one of four detectives named in a lawsuit filed by Robert Majors, who was wrongly convicted of the robbery in Flushing. The complaint alleges Sapraicone and the other detectives violated Majors' constitutional rights to a fair trial by not disclosing evidence that could have helped with Majors' defense, and failing to investigate leads pointing to other suspects. The lawsuit was settled in 2021, costing the city $3.3 million. 

A Newsday review of hundreds of pages of court documents revealed that Sapraicone played a lesser role in the East Elmhurst case, but he did gather evidence that could have helped with the defense of the three men and was later used by defense attorneys to get their convictions overturned.

“Sapraicone was present for a lot of this; he was involved,” Jonathan Hiles, a defense attorney in the payroll truck case who also assisted in the check-cashing case, told Newsday while discussing Sapraicone's involvement in both cases.

Scott Glick, Sapraicone's campaign spokesman who handled Newsday's request for comment, said the detective worked in a “supportive role” during the Majors case, and noted that the lawsuit did not go to trial.

“Mr. Sapraicone spent 20 years with the NYPD, where he had a stellar career as a First Grade Detective keeping New Yorkers safe,” Glick said in a statement to Newsday. “He worked to ensure countless violent criminals were arrested, tried by a jury, and held accountable.”

Sapraicone, 67, who was born in Queens and has lived on Long Island for more than 30 years, began his career as an NYPD transit officer in 1980 and retired as a detective in January 2001, according to police records. He then started a private security company called Squad Security, which he recently sold.

Sapraicone had four civilian complaints made against him between 1983 and 1998, three for alleged “force,” and one for alleged “abuse of authority,” according to city records. The Civilian Complaint Review Board found all four complaints to be either “unfounded” or “unsubstantiated.” The review board was a unit of the police department until 1993, when it was made an independent agency.

Sapraicone's NYPD career became a key talking point at the state Republican Party convention in February, helping to earn him the party's nomination for Senate by an overwhelming margin. 

Despite earning the coveted endorsement of former President Donald Trump, Sapraicone's nomination sparked a rare, public intraparty dispute between moderate Republicans and die-hard Trump loyalists, who say the ex-president may have been misled into backing him. Sapraicone's opponents take issue with donations his company, Squad Security, has made to Democrats.

Sapraicone's opponents also have criticized him on social media for his role in the Majors case — a topic that's likely to continue to crop up as he is expected to face three primary challengers in June.

Sapraicone last year threw his hat in the race in the February special election to replace expelled Rep. George Santos (R-Nassau/Queens) in the 3rd Congressional District. The Republican Party selected Mazi Melesa Pilip as its candidate. She was defeated by Democrat Tom Suozzi.

Democrats in the state greatly outnumber Republicans, with about 6.4 million registered Democrats and 2.9 million registered Republicans as of November, according to state Board of Elections data. 

The Majors case

On May 9, 1997, three men ambushed a payroll delivery truck in Flushing, stole about $80,000 and shot and wounded two guards, Arthur Pettus, an off-duty NYPD detective, and Joseph Bellone, a retired NYPD officer.

Police arrested Aaron Boone, 26, a member of the gang known as “Speedstick,” and Robert Majors, 31, who was found with a duffel bag containing guns tied to the crime. Majors, who was married to Boone’s sister, said Boone asked him to transport the duffel bag for him.

Majors, who had a prior conviction and served time for possessing a handgun, said he was at a chiropractor appointment when the crime took place. His chiropractor testified and provided documentation that he was at the appointment. 

Boone at that time told detectives, including Sapraicone, that Majors didn’t take part in the robbery.

Eyewitness testimony describing the perpetrators, which would have ruled out Majors, was omitted during testimony at Majors' trials, according to court records. Sapraicone and other detectives, for example, did not disclose in court a witness description that said one of the perpetrators had cornrows, according to Majors' settlement claim. Majors had short hair and no cornrows, the court filings said. 

On May 21, 1997, Sapraicone and two other officers took a sworn statement from Kevin McKinney, who was affiliated with the Speedstick gang. McKinney said gang member Bernard Johnson confessed to him that he committed the payroll truck robbery with Boone and a gang member named Rasheed, not Majors, according to court documents.

Police arrested Bernard Johnson.

Majors' attorney, Hiles, told Newsday that while the McKinney affidavit was deemed credible by police in regard to Johnson, they didn’t follow up on the Rasheed lead. The affidavit was not provided to defense attorneys. 

For years, Majors requested police reports and information related to his case without success, before enlisting the help of attorney Thomas Hoffman, who appealed, leading to the release of the McKinney affidavit by the district attorney's office. 

In May 2020, State Supreme Court Justice John B. Latella in Queens vacated Majors' attempted murder and robbery convictions, saying suppression of the McKinney affidavit violated Majors' constitutional right to a fair trial. The judge also found the prosecution failed to disclose witness descriptions that would have excluded Majors. The judge did not vacate the weapons possession conviction.

In October 2020, charges related to the robbery and attempted murder were dismissed, and Majors was released after more than 20 years of incarceration — about 10 years longer than he would have served under the weapons possession charge.

Speedstick gang evidence

During post-conviction proceedings in the Majors case, the Queens district attorney disclosed the police report from confidential informant known as “Witness #1" who had been interviewed by Sapraicone and other detectives in May 1997.

The informant listed several crimes committed by the Speedstick gang, including the December 1996 attempted robbery of an East Elmhurst check-cashing business that resulted in the murders of business owner Ira Epstein and off-duty NYPD Det. Charles Davis, who was serving as a security guard, both of whom were fatally shot. 

George Bell, 19; Gary Johnson, 22; and Rohan Bolt, 35, were arrested in 1996 and convicted of the attempted robbery and murder. 

The statement from “Witness #1" had only been available to defense attorneys in redacted form at the time.

Hoffman, Majors' attorney who was also on the legal team for Bell, Bolt and Gary Johnson, realized the importance of the "Witness #1" document in the East Elmhurst case and shared it with the defendants' legal team.

Later, the Queens district attorney disclosed police reports related to another confidential informant, known as “Witness #2,” who was affiliated with the Speedstick gang and interviewed by Sapraicone and another detective in 1997. The informant further implicated the gang in the East Elmhurst case. The document had not been presented in court or provided to the defense attorneys at the time.

A rule derived from a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case, Brady v. Maryland, says the district attorney has a constitutional duty to disclose material that is favorable to the defense. This rule to turn over what's known as “Brady material,” applies to the prosecution, not the police, said Hermann Walz, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The police have “no obligations” to the defense attorney or the defense unless they're ordered by the court to turn over documents, he told Newsday. The police typically provide everything to the district attorney, he said. 

In March 2021, State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Zayas vacated the convictions for all three men, saying the district attorney’s office deliberately withheld information from the defense that would have cast doubt on their guilt.

All three were released and later filed compensation claims. Bell’s claims were settled in 2023: He received $4.4 million from the state and $17.5 million from New York City. The claims of Bolt and Gary Johnson are close to a resolution, attorneys said.